The present invention relates to a system and method for reading handwriting and, more particularly, to a system and method for interpreting handwriting and translating the written image into text.
Computer-aided cursive script recognition and hand printed script recognition have become more commonly used as an increasing number of hardware and software devices have been developed which facilitate and implement inputting data into a computer system through a script interface. For example, tablet computers are designed to permit data, text, and graphics to be inputted by an operator moving a stylus over a touch-responsive screen, simulating writing on the screen. Other types of devices, such as the digital pen shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,985,643, used in conjunction with a specially encoded paper, permit the pen strokes of the user on the paper to be recorded digitally, and this information then easily supplied to a computer system.
After an image is captured digitally, it still must be “recognized,” i.e., converted into a series of text words, images, or other data for use by a computer or other device. Various approaches have been taken in the past to recognize digitized images for this purpose. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,950,555, issued Sep. 27, 2005 to Filatov et al, discloses a recognition system in which the anticipated appearance of a word or phrase is compared to a digitized image of a written word. Other types of devices have been used to convert a cursive script image, created with an ordinary writing implement, into a digital format, and then translate the image into digital text so that it can be used by a computer system. Some devices of this sort attempt to recognize each letter of each word individually, while other devices recognize cursive script on a word-by-word basis.
It will be appreciated that translating a handwritten message into a digital text message is a complex task. Variations in the style of handwriting among individuals can be significant. Further, cursive script is commonly written in a relaxed manner, so that some of the cursive letters are ill formed, slurred together, or not formed at all. As a consequence, a word written in cursive script may appear very similar to more than one text word. The text word that is judged to have the highest level of similarity in appearance to the anticipated appearance of a cursive script word will, in many cases, depend upon the specific algorithm used by the computer system to assess this similarity. Such unpredictability will, quite naturally, lead to the mis-recognition of words written in cursive script in a significant number of instances.
It is seen, therefore, that a need exists for an improved system and method for automatically recognizing a handwriting image and converting such image to text data, including a sequence of validated words, in which a significant number of the images are accurately recognized.